What is an Evangelical?

To quote the National Association of Evangelicals and LifeWay Research, people must strongly agree with these four statements to be categorized as evangelical:

• The Bible is the highest authority for what I believe.

• It is very important for me personally to encourage non-Christians to trust Jesus Christ as their Savior.

• Jesus Christ’s death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin.

• Only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their Savior receive God’s free gift of eternal salvation.

Interested in knowing more, see: https://www.nae.org/what-is-an-evangelical/

History of Evangelicalism in America

Watch a video (8 min) produced by Wheaton’s Institute for the Study of American Evangelicals (ISAE). The ISAE began in 1982 and concluded its work in 2014.

See also Timothy Larsen’s article: Evangelicalism’s Strong History of Women in Ministry, Aug. 2017.

Women in the Modern Evangelical Movement

Timothy Larsen writes:

"Women in public Christian ministry is a historic distinctive of evangelicalism. It is historic because evangelical women have been fulfilling their callings in public ministry from the founding generation of evangelicalism to the present day and in every period in between. It is a distinctive because no other large branch of the Christian family has demonstrated as long and deep a commitment to affirming the public ministries of women – not theologically liberal traditions, not Roman Catholicism or Eastern Orthodox traditions, not Anglicanism or other mainline Protestant traditions. I am defining “public ministry” as Christian service to adult believers – including men – that takes one or more of the following forms: preaching, teaching, pastoring, administering the sacraments and giving spiritual oversight."

Janette Hassey, in No Time for Silence: Evangelical Women in Public Ministry Around the Turn of the Century, documents the remarkable openness to women in public ministry in conservative evangelicalism and fundamentalism in the late 19th and early 20th century.

Women were trained for public ministry by the theologically conservative Bible colleges. Moreover, women faculty members at these institutions taught Bible and theology.” (Larsen)

• 1860 – Wheaton College – (an evangelical school) 1st college in America to have the entire curriculum open to men and women

• 1870 Frances Townsley – she was a full-time preacher and evangelist – ordained by Baptists

• Moody Bible Institute — founded by a woman, Emma Dryer. She was the first dean, and Moody’s “women graduates were ordained to full-time senior pastorates.”

• 1919 Wheaton College’s first full-time Bible teacher was Edith Torrey (she taught at Wheaton from 1919-1958)

• 1923 Northwestern Bible School, Indianapolis Bible Institute – all faculty were women

“Many of the most prominent male leaders of evangelicalism in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries were vocal champions of women in public ministry.

• Fredrik Franson (1852-1908), a pioneering Swedish minister in America, wrote in the late 19th century, Prophesying Daughters, in defense of his affirmation of the role of women. 

• 1925 Evangelical Free Church of America, not only welcomed women into public ministry but also went out of its way to make this explicit by using gender-inclusive statements in its constitution. For example, the rules for ordination that the Evangelical Free Church adopted in 1925 stated: “A candidate for ordination shall request a reference from the church which he or she is a member.” (Larsen)

• A prominent Baptist minister, A.J. Gordon (1836-1895), whose name is perpetuated through Gordon College and Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary, was an advocate of both votes for women and women ministers. The latter cause he articulated in the book, The Ministry of Women, 1894.

• 1920 – Americans passed the Women’s Right to Vote

Evangelicalism in Southern California

• 1906-1915 Azusa Street revival

• 1920s Aimee Semple McPherson's rise to prominence

• 1928 Mears's arrival at Hollywood Presbyterian

• 1949 Billy Graham's Los Angeles Crusade

• 1950s – After WW2, life in the suburbs became a culturally dominant value

• 1965 Chuck Smith's founding pastor, Calvary Chapel

• 1977 Focus on the Family founded by James Dobson

• 1980 Bible Study Fellowship — Ms. Johnson begins writing and teaching women the Bible and training up teaching leaders. Women came to Christ and studied the Scriptures. WATCH VIDEO

• 1985 Network of Evangelical Women in Ministry was founded by Susie Kimes and Directors of Womens Ministries from evangelical churches serving in a variety of denominations and independent churches (including Evangelical Free, Evangelical Covenant, Congregational, Baptist, Grace Brethren, Nazarene). Each woman had a personal conversion experience, having been touched by the love and grace of Jesus. Watch video interviews of the evangelical women in NEWIM. You will hear how they came to know the love of Jesus personally, how they grew in their understanding of the faith through studying the Bible and prayer, how they have spent their lives trying to serve him as best as they could, and how they are still running their race after 50+ years seeking to share God’s love in tangible ways in the world. You will see how spiritual formation goes hand-in-hand with responding to the call of God—during every season of our lives, we seek to do our part as best we can to know God’s love and advance his mission in the world.